It’s been a while since I wrote down a recipe, and I’m writing this one down so I’ll remember how to do it, and what I did.
I read Annalee Newitz’s AUTOMATIC NOODLE (Bookshop | Amazon) while I was in Seattle at the end of last summer, and as it happens there are some great places to get biang biang noodles there. (I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that biang biang noodles figure prominently in the book which, after all, has “noodle” in the title). Here in Boston, though, not that many places make them, and from what I can tell, four of the places listed in the food apps are actually all run out of the same ghost kitchen in Dorchester, which is quite far from me.
My craving for biang biang noodle crops up regularly enough that I decided I should just make it myself.
As usual, I looked up several recipes, tried them out, and found myself wanting to modify them immediately. So here’s my version. This served me and corwin easily with some leftovers.
The full dish includes three main components: the noodles, the meat topping, and the complex of condiments. Oh, and bok choy, which can be substituted with any other blanchable green vegetable you like: napa cabbage, chinese broccoli, even celery if you really like crunch.
THE NOODLES
Start by making the dough because it’s going to have to rest, which gives you time to prep everything else.
240 grams all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
135 ml water (should weigh 135 grams, trying to measure 135 ml by volume is difficult)
Flour and salt into a mixing bowl, then dribble the water in as you stir it with chopsticks until you have a shaggy bunch of dough. Then ball it together and knead with the heel of your hand for 5 minutes. Then wrap it in oily plastic and let it rest for 15 minutes. Then knead for another 10 minutes, divide into six even pieces, roll them oblong and oil them, then let them rest on an oily plate for at least another 15 minutes while you do other steps.
If when you try to stretch the noodles, it snaps back too much, the dough needs to rest longer.
When it’s time to make the noodles — after everything else is prepped and the water is boiling — then you flatten out an oblong piece with a small roller, then score down the center — you’ll rip along this line. Pull from both ends of the dough, slapping it on the cutting board as you pull, almost like a very flat jump rope. Spray oil the finished noodle and set it aside while you do the next one.
Once it’s time to put it in the water, drop them in one at a time and keep them agitated with chopsticks so they don’t stick. Some recipes say when they float they are done, but I found them to be a little undercooked. Once the water returned to a boil, I let it go three minutes because my noodles were pretty thick. (If I get better at pulling them, they’ll be thinner and take less time.)
THE MEAT TOPPING
Take one pound of thawed ground beef. (Ground lamb would also be great. Or turkey if you are trying to cut down red meat but still need the protein.)
Mix it up with the cumin marinade:
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine (substitute sherry if you don’t have shaoxing cooking wine)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
fresh ground white pepper
splash of sesame oil
1 tbsp cornstarch (or arrowroot starch)
When it’s time to fry it, first get the wok piping hot, shut off the heat and swirl in a plain oil (canola or peanut), then return to heat, add more oil, and toss in two smashed garlic cloves and two slices of ginger, get them going until they’ve seasoned the oil, and then toss in the marinated meat. Stir fry until all the pink is gone. Most recipes stop there, but we felt it could benefit from being saucier: add a half cup of broth or water to the wok, and then if needed thicken with a teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in a tablespoon of water.
THE COMPLEX OF CONDIMENTS
Toast a half tablespoon of szechuan peppercorns and half a tablespoon of whole cumin seeds in a small pan. Once they’re toasted, into the spice grinder until pulverized.
In the bottom of two large Chinese soup bowls (the ones as big as my head, preferably) put:
About a teaspoon of the toasted cumin/peppercorn mix (maybe more)
Sliced scallions (about one scallion per bowl)
Minced fresh garlic (at least one medium clove per bowl)
Large pinch of kosher salt
A splash of chili oil (I like the Fly by Jing “Sichuan Gold” oil)
In a sauce bowl on the side for each person:
1/2 tbsp Chinkiang “black” vinegar
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp chili crisp
Wash and chop fresh cilantro leaves
Wash and chop bok choy or napa (or whatever blanchable green vegetable you like)
COOK AND ASSEMBLE
Once all the condiments are prepped as described and the water is boiling, and the meat is cooked, then you have to heat up four tablespoons of oil (peanut or canola). Have this getting hot on the stove while the noodles are cooking.
Drop the noodles in one at a time, agitate with a chopstick to keep from sticking together. When the noodles are done, pull them out of the water and then throw the green vegetable into the water. If you want to make it easy, do this in a pasta pot with a strainer, pull the strainer out with the noodles in it and set it in the metal bowl, and then when you drop the greens into the water, do it in a large handheld strainer so you can get those out easily.
After the greens come out, drizzle the hot oil onto the condiments in the bowls, add cooked noodles, add meat topping, add greens. Top with fresh cilantro. At the table each person pours in their vinegar-chili sauce mix, and toss with chopsticks. Add more chili oil if you feel it’s not spicy enough. (I don’t like it too-too hot.)
Modifications I might try: fry the whites of the scallions with the beef, add cumin seeds to the beef, add the cumin and szechuan pepper powder to the beef.
References:
https://redhousespice.com/biang-biang-noodles/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/biang_biang_noodles_33115
I love Chinese Cooking Demystified, but for me the dough did NOT need to rest for two hours. Nice technique on the biang-ing, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiBnK5DcWCU
